In the days that followed, Yuan Si spent her free time wandering outside, observing the world with her own eyes. Of course, back at home, she was uncompromising at the dinner table when it came to her rights. She insisted on getting her fair share—her demands weren't excessive, she just wanted to be treated the same as her nephews. This never failed to send Li Yuan'ai into a rage.
The porridge in the Li family's bowls grew thinner and thinner. They used to have cornbread or the like twice a week, but now, such treats were nowhere to be seen.
The Li family's boys were the first to complain. They were used to only ever being half-full, but now they couldn't even manage that.
Li Yuan'ai shot them a look and snapped, "All any of you think about is eating! The grain supply is almost gone. If we don't water down the porridge, do you expect us to starve to death before the month is out?"
Yuan Si wasn't happy about the thin porridge either, but seeing that everyone was eating the same thing, she kept her dissatisfaction to herself. She might be blunt, but she wasn't ignorant of how the world worked; she knew that as an outsider, she wasn't welcomed by anyone in this family. Previously, she had been able to get her fill by taking advantage of her young age, knowing no one could do much about it. However, her wanderings these past few days hadn't been for nothing. She'd learned that in the city, a family's grain was allocated by the state. You couldn't just buy as much as you wanted; even if you had the money, no one would sell it to you. The Li family was just an ordinary working-class family, and their monthly grain ration really wasn't much. It was barely enough to feed their own children, so adding another mouth to feed truly made things difficult.
Yuan Si felt she ought to be understanding, so she endured the hunger of the past few days without a word. She also made a secret decision in her heart. 'I have to find a chance to go back to my hometown. There's nothing good about the city; you can't even get a full meal.'
Another week passed. After work, Li Yuan'ai specifically called Yuan Si over. She started with a long-winded speech that, in Yuan Si's opinion, was completely pointless, before finally getting to the heart of the matter. "You've been at your Second Sister's house for a while now," she said. "I bet Mom is missing you back home. Why don't you go back and see her?"
She used a tentative tone, afraid the child would refuse to leave.
"Fine. I'll go home." Yuan Si had long grown tired of the city. 'You can't even get a full meal here. I really don't know what these city folk have to be so proud of.' She wanted to go back to her hometown. In her memories, her hometown was in the countryside, which meant there was land for planting. In the doomsday world, as long as there was arable land, it meant there would be an ample supply of food.
Li Yuan'ai hadn't expected Little Si to agree so readily. The whole speech she had prepared got stuck in her throat.
"What's wrong?" Yuan Si was confused. 'Weren't we just talking about me going home? Why is she spacing out?'
"It's nothing. I'm just glad you understand my predicament." Li Yuan'ai snapped out of it, consoling herself. 'As long as she agreed, that's all that matters. That's all that matters.'
Two days later, she packed Yuan Si's things. In truth, there wasn't much to pack—just the same two sets of tattered clothes she had arrived with. This time, Li Yuan'ai wasn't stingy; she made a few cornbread buns for Yuan Si to eat on the train. Then, Li Yuan'ai put Yuan Si on the train.
The trains of this era were a real eye-opener for Yuan Si. 'To think that something as slow as an ox-cart is considered a relatively advanced mode of transport in this world,' she thought. It was baffling. In the doomsday world she came from, trains no longer existed. People got around by car or on mutated beasts, both of which were incredibly fast.
Fortunately, the train wasn't too crowded. People at this time were reluctant to spend money on this "big iron contraption," so everyone had the same mindset: avoid long journeys if you can, and stay home if possible.
Yuan Si was traveling with a fellow villager. Since she was under 1.2 meters tall, her train ride was free.
Yuan Si didn't know the villager well. After a brief greeting, she found a bench to herself. She watched the scenery slowly drift by outside and listened to the other passengers chatter idly about all sorts of things. A whole day passed in a rocking, swaying daze.
She did, however, manage to overhear a few things—for instance, who the "big boss" of this world was, what the current political landscape looked like, and so on.
Of course, this was all from eavesdropping. She discovered that the people of this era seemed to have a deep-seated reverence for the leadership "above," something she could tell from their expressions and tone of voice.
The more she listened, the more her brow furrowed. She couldn't agree with some of the current leadership's methods. 'Isn't that just creating pointless turmoil?' she thought. However, she wasn't arrogant enough to believe that the opinions of a little girl could sway an entire nation. So, she resolved to just live her own life and let others deal with the chaos.
The train rocked along for two days before reaching its destination. At first, Yuan Si had been quite interested in the scenery outside the window, but after a while, it all started to look the same and lost its novelty. Eventually, she gave up on sightseeing altogether. She would lie on the seat and begin to cultivate, getting up only to gnaw on her cornbread buns when she was hungry. And so, she managed to make it to her destination.
After leaving the train station, the villager led Yuan Si onward on foot. At first, Yuan Si was fine; the walking just meant they hadn't arrived yet. But after a while, she couldn't help but ask the villager ahead of her, "How much farther until we get home?"
The villager ahead of her cracked a grin and replied with a single word, "Soon," before lowering his head and continuing on his way.
Yuan Si had no choice but to pump her little legs and hurry to keep up behind him.
After Yuan Si had asked for the nth time how much longer it would be, the villager finally announced that they had arrived.
Yuan Si nearly collapsed right there on the ground. 'She was only a six-year-old kid, for crying out loud!' Walking for two or three hours straight had nearly been the death of her. Luckily, she was tough enough to have endured it.
"I've brought you to the village. You can go home on your own. I need to get back to my place." Once they were inside the village, the villager irresponsibly tossed out these words, abandoned the little girl, and strode off until he vanished from sight.
Yuan Si was dumbfounded. 'This is my first time here! I don't know where my house is, you know! How could you just abandon a little kid like that? What kind of person are you?'
But griping internally was useless. The man was long gone, and it was too late to drag him back. All she could do now was rely on herself.
Yuan Si closed her eyes and began to diligently search the original owner's memories. A few minutes later, she finally found what she was looking for. 'Ah, so this is where her home is.'
Now that she knew where to go, Yuan Si picked up her little bundle and set off for home on her short legs.
Following the route from her memory, she made her way through the village and arrived at her own front door.
'Yep, it looks exactly like the home in my memories. This must be the place.'
It was a typical farmhouse courtyard, enclosed by a wicker fence. The layout resembled a small quadrangle, but the gate wasn't opposite the main house; instead, it was located on the western side.
This was due to the limitations of the terrain; the courtyard was built on a slope, and its southern side was right at the edge of that slope, making it impossible to put a gate there. Thus, it was placed on the western side.
The wicker gate wasn't locked, so Yuan Si pushed it open and walked inside. Seeing no one was around, she took the opportunity to familiarize herself with her future home. As she was looking around the yard, an old woman with bound feet came rushing in.